Tales of Food and Fire
by a singularity in the milky way
Summary: [The World Is Watching OneShot]. Riko, Haruhito's older sister, returns home and talks to her brother, as well as setting the kitchen on fire.


**Tales of Food and Fire**

Haruhito glared at the screen.

Unconsciously, he pat Adern who had, once again, reclaimed his lap as napping spot - except that with Haruhito's nervous patting, even a cat couldn't sleep. He glared at the screen, as if an angry glare could force words to appear. "The cold weather was" - that was the sentence he was writing. Slowly, he placed his hands on the keyboard of his laptop, ignoring the files next to it. Princess-what's-her-name had to wait; this scene was important.  
"He glanced up to the sky, the horizon and his partner. The snow was getting stronger, they thought. The cold weather was," He read out loud while beginning to type, "cold."

"I am pretty sure that that needs editing, _onichan_ ," Riko appeared behind him, and gave him the fright of his life. Master Adern jumped up - the sudden movement by the human scared him. Restless, the cat jumped onto the desk.

Haruhito didn't give his older sister an inch of attention. Slowly, he rose and turned to his cat with the intention to calm him down. Himself too. "Sssh. Everything is alright. It's just big old Riko - just a big human who won't hurt you, kitty."

Riko crosses her arms with an amused smile. "The cat obviously has priority over me," she said.  
Without turning around, her brother - straightforward as always - answered: "Of course he is. Also, he has a name"

"I know that," Riko reminded him and stepped closer, patting the ginger cat as well, "What did mother and father want?"

Rather than answering his older sister's question, Haruhito handed her the file. The brunette opened it and sat down next to her brother. One hand still patting Adern, she began reading the file that Haruhito hadn't even opened yet.

"Illéa?" she asked.

"That's the big country in the east – the northern continent," Haruhito pointed to a world map on the wall. One or two photos of sights were attached to the North American continent, but Europe and Asia were places he had been to more often. Especially Russia – the whole wall above the map was full of photos he had taken there. Research purposes and all.

"erizabesu…?" Riko tried to read the name of the Illéan crown princess from the Japanese files, their mother had written. "Erizabesu Regina Ooderu Shuriibu? Isn't the last word the word for 'sleeve'? Why would someone name their daughter Sleeve?"

"Elisabeth Regina Odelle Schreave," Haruhito corrected her. Rather than bothering with reading the katakana of the princesses' name, he had looked for her name online, and now pointed towards the Wikipedia article of the princess.

"Yeah? Isn't it the same?" She pushed hair behind her air and leaned forward to take another look at the file.

"Schreave is the name of the royal family of Illéa, I think— " Haruhito skimmed through the article. "—yes. Like Windsor is for the royal family of New England. It's a surname."

"… Weird." Riko uttered – the imperial family of New Asia didn't use any. "Foreign cultures, huh? Why do they put the surname after the given name? That's confusing."

"They do it in Russia too," Haruhito reminded Riko.

"I know…" She sighed. "I'll somehow get used to it, I hope." She glanced through the window – the skyline of Tokyo was, by now, lit up. The sun had set. Time for dinner, the princess realised.

"At least you will only need to deal with one culture." He pointed to the new article, he opened.

"That's English. I'm as fluent in English as I am in meowing," she joked. Her aim - to get a laugh out of her brother's mouth – wasn't fulfilled; Haruhito didn't react.

"It's an Illéan news article on the Selection," he explained with a voice void of emotions. What did he think about the whole thing? Riko couldn't say. "Quite a few countries responded already… Including the Mongolian Empire, going by rumours."

"… Oh no." Riko looked onto the words that didn't make very much sense to her – her Russian was far better than her English. "Russia too though, am I right?" She pointed to one of the names – Russia. "At least you'll have someone to hopefully get along."

"Just rumoured ones, _oneesama_ … Hey, look, Takahito is in the running."

"He can't marry anyone until Yui's child is born," Riko remarked. "Especially not a foreign crown princess."

"I know. Wait…" He quickly began typing something into the search machine. He searched, checked the results and went back at least twice, losing Riko's direct interest and attention which she returned to the files.

"There's pretty little known about Erizabesu. She has three university degrees – political science and languages."

"Elisabeth," Haruhito corrected, "and, so is about me."

"You aren't the heir to the throne though. You'd expect Illéa to pay more attention to politics. Isn't that a thing in western nations? People having little respect for privacy and all?"

"There are complains online about her marrying a foreign prince rather than a commoner." Haruhito looked to his sister.

"A commoner? Like commoner-commoner or elite-commoner?" Riko repeated surprised.

"Commoner-commoner. Apparently, that is a thing in Illéa… Yui was a commoner too though!"

"Yui came from one of the richest families in Seoul though – you can hardly call her commoner. She is definitely an elite commoner!"

"Point given," Haruhito nodded, "which reminds me – do you think they'll be back in time?" He hoped that they wouldn't. The less people the better.

"In time?" Riko asked. "For what?"

"Mother apparently intends to throw a send-off party for me," he uttered sarcastic. "At the palace, I believe. Going by the sounds of it, something public. Officially hosted by the Emperor."

Riko laughed in disbelief. "A what? I doubt mother would ever organise a party."

"I don't know," Haruhito cut his words short.

"Maybe it was the Empress?"

"Hmm."

Riko opened her mouth to say something else, but her brother's lack of interaction told her that it was of little use. She was curious – the idea of her little brother marrying was interesting. She couldn't imagine it, but then again, she often felt like she missed out on things concerning him.  
"Do we eat out today?" she asked, just stopping herself of adding 'We should celebrate!'. She wasn't sure of his opinion on the whole situation.

"… Right." Haruhito groaned. It was the day off of the staff of the penthouse apartment. He didn't mind the silence – he loved the lack of people – but that also meant that they had to either organise food themselves or skip a meal. Haruhito tended to go for the skip – he couldn't motivate himself to cook – but Riko wouldn't allow that.

"Do you want to cook?" Riko teased.

"No."

Riko pursed her lips. "I cooked last time," she complained.

"I thought cooking was your hobby?"

"I thought it was yours too?"

"My hobby's writing."

Riko smiled. "Alright. Anything particular? Oh! I should try some Illéan cuisine." She pulled her phone out of her skirt's pocket and began typing something.

"McDonalds then?"

"No! I'm above _that_."

"Subway?"

"Shut up!" Riko laughed out loud and pulled one of the cat pillows – of which her brother had an incredible amount – and threw it towards his face. Once again, Adern jumped.

"Leave Adern alone," Haruhito complained.

"Alright, alright…." Riko played complaining, but ultimately stood up and left her brother's office. "Do take a look at that Erisabesu; mother and father will be happy."

* . * . *

"This had to work somehow. Master Adern didn't lie, didn't he?" Haruhito read out loud and petted the cat on his lap. "Carefully, he unlocked the door, muttering the words 'Please be some big bad dragon, please be some big bad dragon.' Of course, it wasn't."

The ginger cat looked up lazily. "Meow…" Adern tucked his head back onto Haruhito's overly large sweater ("Cat mum") that he placed on his lap. It had gotten rather hot inside, so he was fine with his t-shirt ("Show me your kitties") for the moment. Unless his parents or sister decided to ignore the "Knock or face my cat's wrath" sign on his door at least. Maybe he was a little bit obsessed with cats. He probably wasn't too happy to be a recurring character in Tales Untold.

"Huh…?" Haruhito turned around. There was some strange smell. "What is…"

A strident voice – a cry – made Haruhito shiver. Riko – that was Riko! – and the smell was burning oil, he came to realise. The cry made Adern jump up – the cat seemed to be looking for the source. He muttered some calming words, but placed the cat, including sweatshirt, onto his desk and opened the window leading to the cat garden placed on the balcony. He grabbed hoodie ("I am a cat" with cat ears), pulled it over and left his room.

"What happened?" Haruhito called out. He didn't want to be walking down the stairs to the kitchen of the penthouse – but it was logical. Riko didn't just scream around for no reason, and then there was the smell of fire.

When Haruhito entered the kitchen that was filled with smoke. The fire alarm was beeping and Riko was panicking. The pan in front of her was filled with white foam and in the sink. This scene was one-to-one taken out of Tales Untold. Said scene was based on something Riko had done before. It wasn't the first time that Riko set food on fire.

"… I am… uh… eh… hi?"

Haruhito shook his head. Not in disappointment or dislike, he simply couldn't believe this. Wordless, he opened the window next to the stove, looking aside – lost on what to say.  
"We're getting takeaway," he decided.

Riko dropped onto a nearby chair and called the only staff at work today, asking him to get them something to eat. Haruhito glanced at his sister who dodged his eyes. They usually got takeaway – ever since Riko's engagement, she spent much more time on work and plans related; she hadn't cooked in forever. "Uh, hey, do you…" Riko sighed. "What do you think of the Selection?"

"It seems to have worked in Illéa. It's an interesting idea. I might adept it."

"No, no, no!" Riko groaned. He had misunderstood her on purpose. "What do you think of… participating in it?"

"I don't think," Haruhito hesitated and began fiddling with the strings of his hoodie, "that I have a choice."

"Yes… but…" Riko

"It sounds like a sweet idea," Haruhito began answering - he looked aside, his voice as void as always, "but I doubt that I'll…" He broke off. "Forget it."

"You might make friends!" Riko encouraged.

"I _have_ friends."

"Friends that are nothing but a name on a screen," Riko reminded him.

"Some of them live in Illéa, you know." Haruhito rolled his eyes and rose. He didn't want to talk about the thought of so-many people being around him, interacting with him and his parents' expectations to court the crown princess.

"Why… why didn't he send Nagahito?" Riko asked, referring to their younger brother who resided closer to the university and studied law. His father's expected successor – the New Asian crown prince wasn't perceived as that _keen_ to rule after all. "Father has much more faith into him…. Of course, Nagahito wants to become a politician, but it's… it's not that father would pay too much attention to that?"

"I speak English," Haruhito stopped walking. "Nagahito speaks about as much English as mother does."

"Which is nothing, yes," Riko finished.

Haruhito turned to the shelves and opened one of the cupboards, took one of the tins in it, but Riko couldn't see that. Quietly, he began opening the tin, grabbed a bowl and a spoon to move the content of the tin to the bowl.

"I thought we were going to get takeaway? Why mirocwave food?"

Wordless again, Haruhito pushed the bowl to her.

Cat food, Riko realised, and pushed the food back away from her. "Uh, no, thanks. I will take the takeaway…. I hope you will too."

Haruhito took the bowl and shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. The cat's got priority." He bended down and called the ginger cat that, by now, had come inside again.

"Just tell the Erizabesu that you intend to become an old cat lady."

"I already am," Haruhito answered with a grin, "and Adern's coming with me. The cat's coming, or I am not."

 **Author's Note**

 **Fanfiction oneshot to Abizeau's The World Is Watching ( s/13099801/1/The-World-Is-Watching-Male-SYOC). I wanted to do a bit about my OC, Haruhito, and ended up writing a bit more about what happened after his appearance in Chapter 03. I might do a bit more, I don't know. :)**

 **Thanks to Abizeau for pretty much proofreading it. :)**


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